Growth Opportunities and Funding Sources for Marshfield Bakery Limited

This report discusses growth opportunities and funding sources for Marshfield Bakery Limited. It covers SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces Strategies, VRIO Framework, Ansoff's Matrix, and sources of funding such as equity capital, bank loans, and government grants. The report also includes a business plan and evaluation of succession or exit policy for small enterprises.

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
P1. Growth opportunities for SME like Marshfield Bakery Limited.....................................2
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................2
PESTLE Analysis............................................................................................................................3
Porter's Five Forces Strategies.........................................................................................................5
VRIO Framework ...........................................................................................................................6
Ansoff's Matrix................................................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P2. Sources of funding for Marshfield Bakery ......................................................................9
TASK 3 .........................................................................................................................................10
P3. Business plan including financial and what are the strategic objectives to scale up a
business.................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P4. Evaluation of succession or exit policy for small enterprises........................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................13
References:.....................................................................................................................................13
Introduction

Small sized businesses are one of most growing and high percentage profits producing
options today. These enterprises need to make various analysis and plans in order to create a
competitive edge for themselves in the market space. For this respective report, Marshfield
Bakery Limited is the chosen business which is situated in United Kingdom which started
functioning in year 2005 providing bakery products like bread, pastry, biscuits etc. and in today's
date they have shown drastic growth with now estimated net worth of over 5 billion
pounds(Crispi, Miranda and Gratacós, 2018). A major contribution to their growth is due to
various strategies like PESTLE, SWOT, VRIO and Porter’s five generic which are very
important for a SME. These strategies are supported by the Ansoff's matrix. When considering a
small scaled business another vital aspect is its funding. From where does they collect their funds
along with the benefits and drawbacks of each source are equally important. Once a business is
ready with its strategies next stage is forming an suitable and effective business model with
complete financial information and clear objectives for the company. Also these small or
medium sized enterprise should always for the case of emergency have an exit policy and for
best case scenarios always have a planned growth strategy too.
TASK 1
P1. Growth opportunities for SME like Marshfield Bakery Limited
For a small scaled enterprise there comes various opportunities in which they can growth
their business and hence be able to earn more for it and market share for themselves. In order to
do so implementation of various plans and procedures are important. Few of such strategies and
analysis for Marshfield bakery are mentioned below:
SWOT Analysis

It is the framework which analyse company's competitive position in the market.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis is done
for a company to evaluate it's competitive advantage which includes it's benefits and main
performing aspects(Amri and Giyarsih, 2022). Other aspects for company such as
liabilities, drawbacks or sectors where it needs to focus and improve are also cover with the
help of this analysis. SWOT helps in recognising opportunities in the market space, along
with the precautions in business that might save the company from the loss that it might
have to face due to lack of information. SWOT analysis for Marshfield Bakery limited has
been mentioned in the table below:
Strength Weakness
 Large variety of handmade bakery
products which are very unique.
 Support of impressive employees
which has helped in developing good
customer relations.
 Marshfield Bakery does not have their
own distribution chain and needs to
depend on SWMAS for it.
 They do not have many bakeries, hence
Marshfield Bakery has to transport their
products to other places.
Opportunities Threats
 Marshfield Bakery Limited with such
strong customers loyalty can introduce
new products like ice creams etc.
 Collaboration with new emerging hotel
chains near them.
 Competition for already established
bakeries like Costa, Gregg etc.
 Due to brexit employees are seeking
more salaries.
PESTLE Analysis

PESTLE is an acronym for political, economical, social, technological, legal and
environmental. It is used by various companies to analyse the external conditions for the
company which is affecting their functionality and its growth. PESTLE provides a company's
complete internal and macro analysis(Cai and et al, 2018). In consideration Marshfield bakery,
factors of external environment are given below:
 Political: External political situations like corporation taxes, government policies, fiscal
policy's initiation, upcoming government projects are known as political factors which
affects a business. United Kingdoms is known for keeping their business agreement with
their international partners which lead to making policies more suitable for them and a
little harsh on local small sized bakeries like Marshfield Bakery.
 Economical: Financial factors like change in GDP, taxes and tariff, prices of raw
products, production charges etc all falls under the category of economical factor.
Marshfield Bakery has always maintained their prices sightly higher and now due to
brexit pound is increasing in value and such high prices bakery goods would be difficult
to sell.
 Social: Factors affecting company like local languages, customer's beliefs, ethics of
target market's customers are known as social factors. United Kingdoms civilians are
growing more and more conscious regarding healthy eating and staying fit. And as
Marshfield Bakery sells sugar based products which is not recommended for staying fit
this can be a topic of concern for them if the need to grow to full extent.
 Technological: All the impacts of technology has on the business are generalised in this
category. Elements like artificial intelligence, websites, machine learning etc are
examples of technology advancements. If Marshfield Bakery wants to grow and expand
in their business they needs to evolve technologically.
 Legal: Law and regulations of the place where the company aims to conducts its business
is the chief vital aspects of this element(Wang and et al, 2019). In United Kingdoms the
new laws are been introduced regarding limiting sugar quantity in foods hence these law
might most probably impact the recipe of few of the Marshfield Bakery's chief products.
 Environmental: All those elements in the business are affect and are affected in the
environment are part of this category. Marshfield Bakery conducts its business in a cold

country are they are planning to introduce ice cream in a cold place which is not a very
popular eatable there hence this is a risk company's willing to take and can result in loss.
Porter's Five Forces Strategies
The term generic itself suggest it these are collection of few generalised plans that many
company adopt to face market's competition and attain an competitive edge in the market over
the rivals(Shang and et al, 2019). In the year 1980, Sir Michael porter gave five general business
plan that would help in better functioning of any business model under the name:
 Competition from rivals: When the competition is affecting a working or progress in
business it is called competition from rivals. United Kingdom's bakery industry is filled
with enormous amount of small to large sized company that are capable of providing
same products and services. Hence Marshfield Bakery has to face very high competition
from its competitors namely Gregg, Costa and in small scaled companies Miel bakery, E5
bakehouse etc.
 Bargaining power of suppliers: When the suppliers of raw material have power to
demand the prices they want or when the does not possess this power, this factor is
studied under this category. Raw material required for the bakery company are not very
rare material and it is easily made available in market by large number of suppliers hence
these suppliers does posses much power to demand the prices according to their will. So
the bargaining power of suppliers is very low for Marshfield Bakery.

 Bargaining power of buyers: Weather or not the buyers are able to bring the price down
of the product or the service that the company provides them is been studied under this
factor. Due to presence of large number of presence of bakeries in the market place the
buyers can easily switch to the other companies but Marshfield Bakery is known for its
unique products not available anywhere easily. Hence from above factors it can be said
that the company faces moderate bargaining power of buyers.
 Threat of new entry: If it is easy or not to start a new business similar to the company
and make some what similar product line is called threat of new entry. Bakery industry is
not a very rare and difficult business, even there are many specialised chef readily
available to assist in the starting of business(Tumbel, 2020). So from above observation it
is not wrong to assume that Marshfield Bakery faces high threat of new entry.
 Threat of substitute: If there is some other product or service present in the industry in
which the company operates which is capable to provide same amount of satisfaction or
adds similar value to the customers it is known as threat to substitute. Marshfield
Bakery's common products are pastry, chocolates etc which have a lot of similar
alternatives giving same satisfaction like sweets and desserts. So Marshfield bakery has
to overcome high threat of substitute.
VRIO Framework
VRIO is an acronym used for value, rarity, imitability and organization. When the
company has to recognises its strength or ability to attain an sustainable competitive advantage
via their internal analysis of resources and its working pattern of different sectors of company it

conducts an VRIO analysis(de Oliveira and et al, 2018). It is basically a set of 4 questions that
helps company to understand their competitive position namely:
 Value: Does or does not the product is able to add value to the customer is known as
value. If the product is not able to give the required satisfaction to the customers its a
competitive disadvantage for the company. Marshfield Bakery provides quality products
for which customers are happy to pay the price hence their products are giving the value
to customers.
 Rarity: When the product of the company is rare or is easily available in the market.
Being rare adds an advantage to the company but not having an rare product is
considered as competitive neutrality. Marshfield Bakery's chocolates and pastry have
secret recipe which is able to give an unique taste incomparable to any other chocolates
in market. Hence they have an rare product.
 Imitability: It is similar to rarity factor but it question about have difficult it is to copy
your product or resource and what is the cost of imitating the product by the rivals
present in industry. If a company's product are easily imitable that company can not have
a sustainable competitive advantage. In case of Marshfield Bakery their products are rare
but are not very hard to imitate hence they need to pay more attention towards this issue
if they want to develop an sustainable competitive advantage.
 Organization: It is the question regarding the internal functioning and structure of a
company that how skilful and maintained an organization is to grow. Marshfield Bakery
since the very beginning has been a very well maintained organizational system with
experienced and expert staff which give a company a huge competitive advantage and
makes the company suitable for growth in future.
Ansoff's Matrix

First given by mathematician Igor Ansoff in year 1947, Ansoff matrix is 2 by 2 grid
which shows 4 different strategies explaining how to expand a company's business plans mainly
with the help of penetration in the market or production(Ishak, Kamaruddin and Aderem, 2021).
Many growing opportunities can be learned with the assistance of Ansoff's growth vector matrix.
Four growing strategies according to Ansoff matrix for Marshfield Bakery are mentioned below:
 Market penetration: This is strategies in which a company tries to reach more
customers in a given market space with the help of current products as the products of are
strong and provides required satisfaction to the buyers. Marshfield Bakery has been
implementing this strategy from the beginning as has been successful in covering large
market share on basis of their unique products
 Market development: Advertisement of already launched products in a new market
space in order to increase the market area where the products are been sold is known as
market development. Marshfield Bakery has strong products but they are not able to
cover more market areas hence this strategy can come very handy for the company in
order to increase their profits with the help of more buyers in new market where they do
bot have any outlets.
 Product development: This strategy concludes that in order to hike the financial profits
for a company they can develop and can launch new products in the current market where
they are popular and have established immense customer loyalty. Marshfield Bakery have
very strong and regular customers base in their present markets. Taking advantage of

their current market position Marshfield Bakery's management has decided to launch new
products which are various variety of ice creams in their outlets hence trying to grab
more profits in the business.
 Diversification: This is most volatile business strategy among these 4 strategies as it
includes entering in to new markets on basis of new products and trying sell those
products. Such business strategies are not recommended for small business enterprises
like Marshfield Bakery.
TASK 2
P2. Sources of funding for Marshfield Bakery
For a business to execute its strategies in order to grow a consolidate source of finance is
required. Funding can be generated from various different sources like as personal savings
investment, venture capital, angels, government grants and subsidiaries, bank loans, love money
etc. each business model can choose the one which which is most suitable for them(Olusoji and
et al, 2022). According to Marshfield bakery's business model and plans few sources of funding
are mentioned below:
 Equity capital: business owners seeks money in exchange of some partnership in
their business. Marshfield Bakery can expand their business by allowing
participation of other business tycoon in their organization helping them to grow
with the help of funds raised enabling them to open more branches of their bakery.
Benefits Drawbacks
 Experience of the business partners
helps innovation and ideas.
 Loss of complete control over the
decisions in organization.
 Bank loans: the company approaches the banks in hope of financially supporting
their business model by paying certain amount of interest on the money borrowed
by them. Marshfield can choose this options as they are growing and banks would
be interested in businesses like their.
Benefits Drawbacks
 It is easiest and quickest way to raise
funds.
 If the interest is not paid on time the
owner might loss large amount of

money as penalty.
 Retained earnings: companies can increase the price of their product and then can
invest the extra money that was raised as a funding. Marshfield Bakery due to their
strong customer loyalty can increase their price slightly.
Benefits Drawbacks
 The company does not need to relay on
other financiers and can self
dependently raise funding for their
business model.
 Due to certain hike in prices the
company might have to face loss in
customers and bad brand identity in
market.
TASK 3
P3. Business plan including financial and what are the strategic objectives to scale up a business
Executive summary: Marshfield Bakery has collaborated with SWMAS, a business developer
company. Under their guidance Marshfield Bakery are going to launch new products (Tuma,
2018). Also, strategies of entering new markets in Europe are been made with better internal
functioning such as more usage of floor space, better maintained staff etc.
Mission: To form a creative plan to enter new markets in United Kingdoms and Europe.
Vision: Creating a well-established brand identity for them all over United Kingdoms and
opening more outlets with many new products.
Strategic objectives:
 Launch new products.
 Increase profits in 2023 by 30%.
Products and Services: Marshfield Bakery is offering different types of products and services to
the customers which includes the cakes, biscuits, snack bars as well as seasonal goods offered in
the Europe and UK.
Marketing analysis:
In order to analyse the market, it is important for the business of Marshfield Bakery to analyse
the market. For this, business needs to use the STP analysis which helps them to identify the
target market. Explanation of the STP analysis of the business of Marshfield Bakery is
mentioned below:

 Segmentation: It is one of the processes which is important for purpose of dividing the
total market into different parts. It is one of the important components which allow
Marshfield Bakery to divide the market on basis of the demographic and geographic
segmentation.
 Targeting: It is a process which allow the business to select the target market on basis of
the attractiveness of a market. Marshfield Bakery is one of the businesses which is
focusing on selecting the target market on basis of the availability of the number of
customers.
 Positioning: It is a process which is focusing on developing a specific picture in minds of
customers. Business managers of the Marshfield Bakery are the ones which is offering a
unique position for their products. It is an organisation which is providing solutions to the
different problems to be faced by the customers.
Marketing strategy: Out of various pricing strategy, Marshfield Bakery on basis of their current
market position and sales they can opt for price skimming marketing strategy. Which means
keeping the prices of their products high at first and later giving heavy discount on them and
lowering the price. Hence attracting more customers on basis of coupons, special discounts and
sale. There are different types of marketing strategies to be adopted by the business of
Marshfield Bakery which is important for them.
 Use of social media is important for the business as it allow them for purpose of
increasing the awareness of their products in minds of their customers.
 Align the business with different food delivery application which will helps the company
for purpose of offering additional services to the customers.
Marketing Mix:
 Product: Marshfield Bakery is one of the organisations which is offering different types
of cakes, biscuits, snack bars as well as seasonal goods to its customers.
 Price: It is an organisation which is offering a higher quality of the products to its
customers and for this, they are charging normal prices which are affordable for their
target customers.
 Place: It is an organisation which has its own bakery where they sold their products.
They are also offering their products on food delivery app.

 Promotion: For purpose of promotion, Marshfield Bakery is using social media
platforms which allow them for purpose of increasing awareness of the products.
Strategic option of growth:
Because of having a strong backbone of solid products with good customer reviews, Marshfield
Bakery can follow new market development strategy to cover more market space with same
products (Shakeel and et al, 2020). And there are no big competitors in Europe in bakery
industry hence considering Europe as next target market is an trenchant decision for Marshfield
Bakery.
Source of funds:
In order to raise funds Marshfield Bakery Limited can seek local banks for loan as they won't
have issue in paying the interest on the borrowed sum of money as they have a smoothly running
business producing good profits. And currently in order to expand they require a huge amount of
money, which if invested properly have very promising future.
TASK 4
P4. Evaluation of succession or exit policy for small enterprises.
A person cannot always run his business, after sometime the business owner gets either
tired of performing various duties in respect to his organization or cant be physically capable of
doing the tasks at work (Haaker and et al, 2021). Hence every business owner should always
form a succession or exit policy for the company to evacuate any loss in case of emergency. A
businessman when steps down from the leadership of the firm. There are two options regarding
the company's future that are possible. These two options are mentioned below:
 Succession: Once an business is established and running smoothly, next stage is to grow
or to ensure success. There are many ways in economics via which any business will
assure its success, few of them are mentioned below:
1. Merger and Acquisition: When the company collaborates with any other business
from inside or from outside the industry it is called a Merger. Marshfield Bakery
have recently partnered with SWNAS which has proved to be very beneficial for
both of them.
Benefits Drawbacks
 Experience of other firm is beneficial in  Losing complete control over the

creation of ideas. decisions made in the company
2. Franchising: Another method of succession is franchising, which means allowing
investors to open a sales outlet for the company in return of finances(Randhawa,
Wilden and Gudergan, 2021). Marshfield Bakery have been franchising all over UK
which has proved very fruitful for them.
Benefits Drawbacks
 Opening more outlets means more
market coverage hence more earning.
 Risk of damaging brand image because
of poor management by other
franchises.
 Exit policy: When the business owner no more wishes to continue with the business and
wants to quit from the organisation it is known as exit strategy. There are many types of
exit policy for a proprietor to discontinue the firm like IPO (initial public offering),
handing over the firm to any relative, friend or employee etc, converting the business into
a cash cow, liquefying firm etc(Barrow, Barrow and Brown, 2018). Marshfield Bakery
are currently new into business and have strong competitive position in market hence
implementing any exit policy would not be of any benefit for them. Few exit policy for
them whenever they decide to leave the business are mentioned below:
1. Sell-off: selling them firm to any third party, family member etc is called sell-off.
Marshfield bakery's recent turnover was estimated around 5.2 billion pounds, they
can sell the firm at this value.
Benefits Drawbacks
 Easiest and smoothest method to leave
the business with money without extra
troubles.
 Danger of poor management by new
proprietor can damage the business.
2. IPO- IPO stands for initial public offering, in which a company makes its ownership
public by making stockholders of the firm(Xu, 2020). Marshfield Bakery can make

their business public hence generating funds and would leave the company
gradually once business concerns are settled.
Benefits Drawbacks
 The company can create immense
creditability and publicity easily.
 Company's private information get
revealed.
Conclusion:
This report concluded about the internal and external environment of Marshfield Bakery
with the help of various analysis like SWOT analysis, VRIO framework, Porter's five forces and
PESTLE analysis. Further various option of generating funds for the company have been
elaborated with the their both advantages and disadvantage. From information through these
analysis a business model for Marshfield Bakery is made suggesting strategies beneficial for
their business. At last the various succession and exit policies are discussed in reference to
Marshfield Bakery along with their benefits and drawbacks for the company.
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